CLARKSBURG – Change comes slowly in this former sugar-beet town on the edge of the state capital.

Not many people leave, and there are few newcomers because there is no room to grow. The riverside hamlet of about 300 is in a part of the delta that has been off-limits to development and preserved for agriculture. That special status is now at the heart of a debate that could affect rural land throughout California’s vast Central Valley.

In the first case of its kind, the unincorporated town 15 miles south of Sacramento is urging a state commission to allow a developer to build 162 homes. The decision about whether to uphold the 14-year-old preservation statute could have broad implications for future land use in the state’s immense agricultural plain, which faces increasing pressure from homebuilders.

“We’re at the point now where homebuilders will try to build anywhere they can in the valley,” said William Fulton, publisher of the California Planning & Development Report. “It’s cheap, it’s flat and it’s close to Sacramento and San Francisco.”

The delta includes some of the most fertile soil in the nation and crucial habitat for migratory birds and other wildlife. The levees that crisscross the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta not only protect farmland and small towns, but also contain the drinking water for 23 million people in the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California.

In an attempt to control development, state lawmakers in 1992 passed the Delta Protection Act. It set aside about 500,000 acres in an area known as the primary zone to “be protected from the intrusion of nonagricultural uses.”

“The big fear is, if they break the primary zone with this action, it could easily happen down on in the delta,” said Ted Smith, a 32-year Clarksburg resident who sat on the committee that revised the town’s general plan in 2001.

Those who support the Delta Protection Act also say that building houses along the banks of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers escalates the potential for a catastrophic flood. Many of the levees in the delta’s rural areas are earthen and were built in the 19th century to protect crop land.

The Delta Protection Commission this month will hear arguments about whether the Clarksburg housing project meets development guidelines established in the five-county region.

At the center of the debate is whether a 105-acre parcel just outside the town is an appropriate place for 162 new homes, a new sewage plant and fire station. The land once was home to the Old Sugar Mill, a beet-processing plant that closed in 1993.

Gary Merwin, 54, an alfalfa farmer and grape grower who lives in the house his grandfather built, said his hometown is in desperate need of revitalization. “Clarksburg was a thriving old town,” he said. “It’s sad. There’s no activity.”

When the mill closed, area trucking companies, the local hardware store and other businesses dependent on it also disappeared. Last year, the town’s elementary school closed its doors.

Life has begun returning to the mill. Developers converted the plant into a grape-crushing facility and tasting rooms for area wineries. They have been working with local leaders for six years to add houses to the property, a venture that would more than double the size of Clarksburg.

This fall, the Yolo County Board of Supervisors changed the property’s zoning and approved the project, a decision that triggered two formal appeals to the Delta Protection Commission.

“We want to see the agricultural uses of the delta preserved, and we don’t want to see people put at risk,” said Gregory Loarie, an attorney with Earthjustice, which is challenging the development on behalf of the Natural Resources Defense Council. A coalition of about 100 area residents also has filed an objection.

The appeals are the first to come before the commission in its 14-year history. It must approve the housing development for the project to go forward. The outcome is less certain if the panel rejects it.

Yolo County could modify the project, although county officials have touted it as an example for other delta communities to follow in providing new jobs and housing.

County supervisors have argued that the land is exempt from the Delta Protection Act’s strict development rules because it was a former industrial operation.

Join the Conversation

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments, we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

If you see comments that you find offensive, please use the “Flag as Inappropriate” feature by hovering over the right side of the post, and pulling down on the arrow that appears. Or, contact our editors by emailing moderator@scng.com.